


Thirteen Ways House Looks at the World

by Dee_Laundry



Category: 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird - Wallace Stevens, House M.D.
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-03
Updated: 2008-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-14 14:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dee_Laundry/pseuds/Dee_Laundry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reimagining of <a href="http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/stevens-13ways.html">Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird</a>, by the American poet Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirteen Ways House Looks at the World

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://nightdog-barks.livejournal.com/profile)[**nightdog_barks**](http://nightdog-barks.livejournal.com/) and [](http://bironic.livejournal.com/profile)[**bironic**](http://bironic.livejournal.com/) who did it first, and better, with [Wilson](http://nightdog-barks.livejournal.com/864261.html) and [SGA's Rodney](http://bironic.livejournal.com/124765.html).

I  
Among twenty fledgling med students,  
The only moving thing  
Was Cuddy's... mouth.

II  
I was of three minds,  
Like a differential  
In which there are three in altercation.

III  
Thick eyebrows lifted above eyes of brown.  
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV  
A man and his symptoms  
Are one.  
A man and his symptoms and the deceptions that obfuscate them  
Are one.

V  
I do not know which to prefer,  
The power of inflections  
Or the power of innuendoes,  
The moment of my whistling  
Or just after.

VI  
Icicles filled the long window  
With barbaric glass.  
The shadow of my companion  
Crossed it, to and fro.  
The mood  
Traced in the shadow  
An indecipherable cause.

VII  
O gullible patients of Clinic,  
Why do you imagine grand illnesses?  
Do you not see how the sniffliest of children  
Linger around the feet  
Of the parents about you?

VIII  
I know noble accents  
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;  
But I know, too,  
That my begetter is involved  
In what I know.

IX  
When Stacy flew out of sight,  
It marked the edge  
Of one of many circles.

X  
At the sight of fellows  
Striding in an orange light,  
Even the bawds of euphony  
Would cry out sharply.

XI  
He rode over New Jersey  
On a so-called deathtrap.  
Once, a fear pierced him,  
In that he mistook  
The shadow of his Honda  
For a hell-bent flatfoot.

XII  
Her mouth is moving.  
The patient must be lying.

XIII  
It was evening all afternoon.  
It was snowing  
And it was going to snow.  
House sat  
Behind a wall of slow-moving glass.


End file.
